THE coronavirus pandemic has caused many aspects of life to change, one of them being more people working from home.

For many people, a great way to combat loneliness is to buy a puppy, something which many people have done.

Although dogs are a great way to gain companionship and in many cases our canine friends are benefiting from the fact that their owners are spending more time at home, this could also have a detrimental effect to their behaviour once the pandemic is over.

Suzanne Burton, 50, is an animal care specialist and she told Nub News: "If a puppy is used to its owners being around because of the pandemic, then once they go back to work, the puppy will get separation anxiety.

"You need to train your puppies to learn how to deal with being left on their own.

"Dogs however also need to learn how to be around other dogs, so please do take them on walks and let them to socialise with other dogs.

Dog meets are still permitted as long as the owners maintain social distancing."

Another matter that concerns Burton is that because people don't go out as much, they don't meet other dog owners that could offer them advice about how to look after their dogs properly, which could allow bad habits to develop.

Burton began her training in 1998 and in 2003 set up her own dog training and pet service company called S.I.T , with the vast majority of her clients based in Ealing.

This is her full-time job and she's concerned with the decrease in volume of clients due to the pandemic.

"We've lost three quarters of our clients as most of them are working from home, so can tend to their dogs' needs themselves and don't need me as much.

"Everything has changed because of COVID, in some cases I'm the only human interaction some of my elderly clients have, as they're physically unable to take their dogs for a walk but at the same time aren't allowed to have their family and friends come over," she added.

The 50-year-old does also work with cats as well and has even worked with tortoises and iguanas in the past too.

"I draw the line with spiders and snakes," she said jokingly.